Chartered surveyors and property consultants Carter Jonas has moved from its offices in York after nearly 200 years of occupation.

Office manager Nigel Lindley and Carter Jonas staff in their new offices in Clifford Street, York

The national firm has relocated from 3 New Street to 5 Clifford Street, near Clifford's Tower.

The new office is the headquarters of the firm's national building and design consultancy, and will continue to service its clients nationwide. It handles both the usual range of services from surveying to design work and project management on listed, new and commercial buildings to more detailed specialisations.

Nigel Lindley, office manager, said: "We are delighted to have settled into new and spacious premises, which allows more space for the sophisticated IT systems, which are now a necessity in a consultancy of this size."

The office also handles dilapidations and associated legal property matters and fire safety in commercial and institutional properties.

Mr Lindley said: "We are engaged by the Dean and Chapter of York to advise on numerous and varied issues concerning their secular properties. For instance, fire precautions in flats above commercial premises where cost-effective measures are necessary to ensure these underused spaces are brought back into the life of the community.

"A current project being undertaken for the Dean and Chapter is that of the repair and restoration of the facades of a school building next to the Minster where scientific investigations have been carried out into the nature of the exciting paint finishes and the colours of paint finishes applied over the many hundreds of years of the life of the building.

"Carter Jonas Building and Design Consultancy is project managing the work, which will be undertaken by a specialist contractor and utilising the expertise of the York Minster Stoneyard."

Meanwhile, laws and regulations affecting property owners and occupiers have a knock-on effect. "The Party Wall Etc Act 1996, which potentially affects anyone intending to alter or extend a property because they have to serve proper notice on adjoining owners, features strongly in our workload in that we regularly advise on how the Act must be complied with," he said.

"In addition, the Disability Act requires businesses to be able to provide good service to disabled customers and give due consideration to disabled employees."

The residential and rural practice office of Carter Jonas at 82 Micklegate remains. The New Street offices were formerly occupied by Byron & Grainger, who had been there since the 1860s, before joining Carter Jonas in the 1980s.

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